Scottish Executive

Children

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding has been allocated to each local authority to implement the Sure Start initiative and what measures it is taking to ensure that this funding has been used appropriately.

Nicol Stephen: Sure Start Scotland seeks to give a positive start to very young children’s lives by providing broad-based support to children and families from deprived areas. The Scottish Executive has allocated a total of £80 million for this from 1999-2004. Information on individual local authority allocations is contained in the funding letters issued by the Scottish Executive, which are available in the Parliament’s reference centre (SPICe) Bib. no’s 15104 and 15106.

  We have set out clear guidance on the aims and objectives, and the process for planning and delivering Sure Start Scotland. A ministerial-level conference emphasised the importance we attach to these objectives. Local authorities have provided returns setting out their proposals, indicative outputs and levels of actual and planned expenditure. Officials hold regular discussions with local agencies and have requested interim reports on outputs and expenditure from those (few) local authorities who do not seem to be giving Sure Start Scotland sufficient priority.

  The Executive is setting up a national evaluation of Sure Start Scotland. The first phase, which we expect to commence this month, will focus on mapping the provision of services throughout the country. The second phase will focus on impact and outcomes for children and families. The evaluation should inform good practice in delivering services. We plan to report on the first stage of this exercise by early next year.

Education

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give a breakdown of participation in pre-school education by three-year-olds and four-year-olds by type of pre-school provision such as nurseries, playgroups, childminders and other forms of child care.

Nicol Stephen: A total of 103,381 three- and four-year-old children were receiving publicly funded pre-school education in the summer term of the last school session. The following table breaks down the places they occupied by type of provision. The figures refer to places, not children, since some children attend more than one centre over the five sessions per week of grant funded education available to them.

  We will shortly be publishing provisional results of the 2001 Pre-school and Day Care Census, analysing the latest information by the different types of provision within the pre-school education sector.

  Number of Part or Full-Time Places Occupied by Three- and Four-Year-Olds

  


Type of Provider 
  

Places Occupied by Three-Year-Olds 
  

Places Occupied by Four-Year-Olds 
  



Local Authority Nursery Schools and Classes 
  

26,351 
  

44,312 
  



LA centres (other than nursery schools and classes)1


2,304 
  

2,257 
  



Private Day Nurseries 
  

9,551 
  

6,234 
  



Voluntary Sector 
  

8,455 
  

3,346 
  



Independent Schools 
  

556 
  

886 
  



Self Governing Schools 
  

19 
  

9 
  



Child Minders 
  

9 
  

15 
  



Grant Aided Schools 
  

3 
  

6 
  



  Notes:

  1. LA Centres other than nursery schools and classes are centres such as family centres, community nurseries etc.

Education

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16485 by Mr Jack McConnell on 11 July 2001, by what date it will require Scottish Borders Council to publish its allocations from the Additional Financial Resources for Schools funding.

Mr Jack McConnell: The council submitted a return to the Scottish Executive Education Department on 11 July which detailed the total spend by most of the schools in its area under different categories. The council has advised that it will forward the finalised information as soon as it becomes available from the remaining schools, probably after the schools re-open for the autumn term.

  I expect the council to publish the information as soon as it has been finalised and, if necessary, considered by its Education Committee.

Education

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16487 by Mr Jack McConnell on 11 July 2001, who the signatories were on behalf of Scottish Borders Council on its Additional Financial Resources for Schools application and what the date or dates of the signatures were.

Mr Jack McConnell: The signatories to the application are Mr John Christie, the Director of Education and Mr John Campbell, the Director of Finance. The date against both signatures is 18 December 2000.

Freight

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what applications it has received for supporting funding to expand the Eurocentral rail freight terminal in Lanarkshire.

Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive has not received an application for Freight Facilities Grant funding to expand the Eurocentral rail freight terminal in Lanarkshire.

Freight

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in the implementation of its road to rail freight strategy.

Sarah Boyack: Awards of Freight Facilities Grants already made will remove over 13.4 million lorry miles from Scotland’s roads each year. The doubling of resources for this grant scheme to £36 million over the period 2001-04 is evidence of our continued commitment to encouraging the transfer of freight from road to rail and water.

Freight

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for Freight Facilities Grant have been received in each year since 1997 and what the average turnaround time for processing these was, broken down by mode of transport.

Sarah Boyack: Eleven awards of FFG have been made in respect of applications received since 1997. Of these, two rail applications were received in 1998, one inland waterway and six rail applications were received in 1999 and one rail and one inland waterway application was received in 2000.

  The average turnaround time for processing rail applications was seven months and for inland waterways was eight months.

Learning Disabilities

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14602 by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 April 2001, when the Partnership in Practice agreements due to be submitted in June 2001 will be made publicly available.

Malcolm Chisholm: Partnership in Practice agreements form part of local authorities’ Community Care Plans which are required to be publicly available in accordance with section 5A(2) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Individual plans are published once they have been formally agreed by the council.

Ministers

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many trips have been made outwith the United Kingdom by (a) the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and (b) the Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and Gaelic in each month since October 2000, detailing the location, purpose and cost of each visit.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Tables of the trips undertaken are attached.

  Trips undertaken by Ms Alexander

  


Month 
  

Location 
  

Purpose 
  

Cost 
  



October 2000 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



November 2000 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



December 2000 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



January 2001
(18-21 Jan) 
  

France 
  

Franco-British Colloque
Network with opinion leaders from Britain & France. 
  Ms Alexander gave a speech on the new economy and regional 
  development from a Scottish perspective. 
  

£337.00 
  



February 2001
(18-23 Feb) 
  

USA 
  

University/economic development links
Meetings with key universities were aimed at effecting 
  knowledge technology transfer and researching their support 
  for entrepreneurs, incubation of spin-out companies and 
  commercialisation of university-developed technologies. 
  Additionally, the Minister had a briefing with Stanford 
  University on the proposed E-Bridge project (with Edinburgh 
  University and SEn).
Silicon Valley entrepreneurship
The Minister met with STI, LIS, Scottish entrepreneurs 
  in US and local venture capital firms in California on their 
  work with new entrepreneurs, corporate finance for new technology 
  companies and business incubation. 
  

£10,370.00 
  



March 2001 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



April 2001
(2-6 Apr) 
  

USA 
  

Tartan Week
Supporting Scottish businesses and promoting Scotland both 
  as a destination for American tourists and as a high tech 
  base for US direct investment. 
Also visited Motorola Global Headquarters. 
  

£3,902.58 
  



May 2001 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



June 2001
(5 June) 
  

Republic of Ireland 
  

Social Partnerships
Fact finding visit. Minister met with the key people involved 
  in implementing social partnership in Ireland. 
  

£335.39 
  



July 2001
(9-13 Jul) 
  

USA 
  

Biotech visit
Building links between Scottish and US biotechnology companies 
  to develop global biomanufacturing capacity in Scotland; 
  support inward investment and assist Scottish biotech companies.
Also visited Polaroid Headquarters. 
  

£5,418.05 
  



  Trips undertaken by Mr Morrison

  


Month 
  

Location 
  

Purpose 
  

Cost 
  



October 2000 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



November 2000 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



December 2000 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



January 2001 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



February 2001 (5-6 Feb) 
  

Frankfurt, Germany 
  

Twin City Launch
Seeking to attract visitors to both Edinburgh & Glasgow, 
  supported by Scottish Tourist Board, British Tourist Authority, 
  Scottish Airports Ltd and both Local Tourist Boards. 
  

£1,778.82 
  



March 2001 
(8 March) 
  

Brussels, Belgium 
  

Opening of Cultural Tourism Seminar
Seminar focused on the use of culture to promote tourism 
  and economic development and was attended by representatives 
  of European tourism, trade and cultural organisations. 
  

£859.50 
  



April 2001
(1- 4 April ) 
  

USA 
  

Tartan Week
Supporting Scottish businesses and promoting Scotland both 
  as a destination for American tourists and as a high tech 
  base for US direct investment. 
Also visited Motorola Global Headquarters. 
  

£3,150.19 
  



May 2001 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



June 2001 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

- 
  



July 2001 
  

- 
  

No Visits 
  

-

Modern Apprenticeships

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many modern apprentices there have been in construction industry trades at the site of the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in each year since work began.

Mr Alasdair Morrison: The information is not gathered centrally.

Prison Service

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive on what occasions in each of the past five years prisoners have exhibited their artwork; whether any sales of the prisoners’ work took place on these occasions and, if so, what happened to the proceeds from the sales.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  Annually, the national Koestler Trust Competition exhibits Scottish prisoner art on a no-fee basis. Any proceeds from sales go, in part, to the provision of art materials and the remainder, either to an appropriate charity or to the prisoner’s personal cash for use upon release.

  In addition, a Scottish health-related competition (no sales involved) has been run for over two years.

  Information about a range of local competitions and exhibitions agreed by individual establishments over recent years are not collected centrally, but the normal presumption is for the proceeds for sales to be in line with those for the Koestler Competition.

Prison Service

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why prisoners will not have the opportunity to exhibit at the "Scene of the Crime" art exhibition later this year given that the Prison Trust Award scheme and the Koestler Award Trust will be offering cash prizes for prisoners’ artwork.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  The SPS consider the particular exhibition referred to might cause considerable public offence. Prisoner art displayed in a "Scene of the Crime" exhibition, to be woven into a "Murder Mystery Tour" by a well known crime writer, might be seen as distasteful at best particularly by victims and their families.

  We are unaware of the Prison Trust Award scheme.

Regional Selective Assistance

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3508 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 31 May 2001, how it will ensure that there is no further delay in making the Regional Selective Assistance payment to Signum Circuits, Selkirk; what effect any such delay would have on jobs in the Borders, and when this payment will now be made.

Ms Wendy Alexander: I recognise the very difficult trading conditions faced by the company. Indeed, the Executive has recently revised the grant agreement with Signum Circuits, leaving a substantial RSA offer in place despite recent redundancies and a downward revision of project numbers.

  The grant offer has always been conditional upon Signum providing the Executive with a charge on its assets, so as to provide some security to protect taxpayers interests. This remains the only obstacle to Signum receiving a first payment and the Executive stands ready to release grant as soon as the company has provided this security.

Scottish Environmental Protection Agency

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how the work of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is monitored.

Rhona Brankin: The work of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is monitored through regular meetings with the Scottish Executive. SEPA’s corporate targets are agreed by ministers annually. Its Annual Report and Corporate Plan are approved by ministers and laid in Parliament.

Transport

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on the provision of rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports.

Sarah Boyack: I am in the process of commissioning a study to examine in greater detail a number of options for developing rail links connecting Glasgow and Edinburgh airports to the Scottish rail network and to each other.

  Six invitations to tender for this study were issued on 25 July. Bids are due back in early September with a view to awarding the contract for the study and commencing work on it later this year.

Transport

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what consultation it is currently having with any local authority or transport company or authority concerning plans for light rapid transit schemes.

Sarah Boyack: The development of tram or light rail projects may be eligible for financial assistance under the Public Transport Fund (PTF) or the Integrated Transport Fund (ITF). The City of Edinburgh Council has submitted a bid which includes the development of light rail in North Edinburgh to the preparation pool of the Public Transport Fund (PTF). I expect to make announcements on the current round of PTF bids by the end of October.

Water

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many combined sewer overflows there are; what their precise location is, and how are they monitored.

Ross Finnie: This information is not held centrally. It is a matter for the water authorities and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Water

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any European legislation pending which will introduce more stringent regulations on the planned discharge of filtered sewage into publicly accessible water courses.

Rhona Brankin: The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), which came into force on 22 December 2000, will require us to establish environmental objectives for water bodies based on their ecological status. In some circumstances these objectives could require more stringent controls on the discharge of sewage. The Scottish Executive’s consultation paper Rivers, Lochs, Coasts: The Future for Scotland’s Waters , explaining the Directive and setting out possible actions for comment, is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. no. 14576).

  The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) imposes obligations to establish waste water collecting and treatment systems within a specified timescale and to specific standards, depending on the size of the community ("agglomeration") and the location of the discharge. The remaining future deadline is 31 December 2005. By this date, adequate collecting systems or other appropriate environmental protection must be provided for agglomerations above 2,000 population equivalent. Standard treatment is also to be provided by then for all waste water entering collecting systems at coastal agglomerations of 10,000 population equivalent or above, and at all agglomerations above 2,000 population equivalent discharging to fresh water or estuaries, and anywhere else where a collecting system exists. The directive does, however, allow for storm water overflows.

  The Scottish Executive is currently consulting on designation of 81 coastal waters, to apply the standards set in the Shellfish Waters Directive (79/923/EEC) at those locations. These standards include ceilings for microbiological contamination. Should these waters be designated, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will be charged with drawing up improvement programmes which, if appropriate, will further control discharge of sewage at those locations. The consultation paper is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. no. 14764).